How to choose the best web hosting plan for your business?
Who’s the ideal web host for your WordPress website?
It could get a little confusing and overwhelming to understand all the different types of hosting platforms and products.
There are various types of web hosting companies and hosting solutions to choose from, and it can be challenging to determine the provider best suited to your business.
The purpose of this blog is to help you choose the right web hosting for your business website. We are going to help you choose the right hosting plan for you, whether you want one site or multiple websites or e-commerce websites, online learning course websites, whether you’re a web developer looking to host your client’s websites or want to build the next big thing.
That’s what this blog is for, to help you choose the best web hosting package for you and your needs now.
Firstly, let’s look at the available hosting solutions;
Best Shared web hosting.
Basic shared hosting is the most common hosting solution available and is the best solution for most small business hosting.
It usually comes with a central control panel such as the popular Cpanel, Plesk, Webmin amongst others. We’ll go into more detail later on.
Shared hosting, along with full management, is usually the most affordable type of hosting.
It is perfect for small businesses such as cafes, trades, manufacturing etc. as your standard brochure website will sit happily in your basic shared hosting environment.
Cpanel hosting.
Ok so some of them have something called cPanel. It’s a well-known industry-standard control panel that allows you to install your websites easily, manage emails and check stats. Cpanel enables you to create email accounts via a control panel. Cpanel makes it easier to manage all of the different sites that you have so there’s a cPanel based managed WordPress hosting you pay just a little bit more for this hosting.
Cpanel shared hosting, tends to be more stable and provides a smoother experience.
Cpanel hosting like WordPress hosting providers can run WordPress websites.
Shared WordPress hosting.
Shared WordPress hosting.
WordPress hosting is a Shared hosting platform specifically for WordPress websites. It usually comes with a control manager.
WordPress hosting is usually a little more expensive than the standard shared hosting.
Also, it can have restrictions and limitations for the WordPress CMS only. So, for example, if you wanted to install additional software alongside your WordPress website, you may not be able to.
What they’ve done is for optimal performance; they have done away with this industry-standard cPanel and have created their custom control panel, a less powerful management system.
WordPress hosting that has their custom control panel just about every single time; do not include email hosting.
So if you also want to have your web host have your email avoid managed WordPress hosting providers. It’s not that it’s not an option; it’s simple; you usually would use Google Apps or some third-party service for your email hosting.
However, they give you the most phenomenal types of speed and specialty out of all of the different web hosts for WordPress.
They also usually have a different billing method, and they charge you to choose a plan which you get a certain amount of unique visitors to your website in a month.
If you go over that, you might get bumped up to the next package, or you might get charged some surcharge fee.
That’s typical when you have managed WordPress hosting with their custom control panel.
Also, there have been some new arrivals to the market, which are WordPress e-commerce hosting providers that have this type of service right now, and it’s called managed Woo Commerce hosting.
It’s going to be a lot like managed WordPress hosting. Still, the environment has been optimised for Woo Commerce e-commerce shops, and they usually come included with some services that are outside of WordPress that make running an e-commerce shop that much easier.
Also, much smoother and that much more efficient.
This is the latest type of hosting that you do not see everywhere just yet it might catch on who knows, but it’s something that is going around right now.
If you want to host WordPress, I will go with the people that created WordPress
If you need emails which WordPress doesn’t include or want a personalised support service with our managed hosting, we recommend going with us https://hypestudio.com.au/hosting/
Best Reseller hosting
So what reseller hosting is, is like basic shared hosting, but it allows you to create these separate containers of web hosting accounts, with its resources, that you can use for individual clients.
You can have any hosting plan that allows you to have more than one web website hosted on it.
You could put a client’s website on it, but the only thing is if you have your website and your client’s site, you’re not going to want to give your client an actual login because that way they can access your stuff.
So that’s what reseller hosting is for, typically you find this with cPanel based hosting and what it does is it allows you to create a cPanel account unique to the individual so you can have all of your client’s websites and email accounts separate from each other. It will enable you to create these cPanel accounts so you can pay one fee, get a certain amount of resources. You would allocate them to each one of your clients; this is great if you’re a web agency. You want to keep all of your clients separate. Still, as I said, you can turn any web hosting account into a reseller account as long as your client doesn’t need to log into the account to manage or maintain anything, not only that, but they won’t ask you for the login, that’s going to be uncomfortable if you do have them on your hosting account, they ask for the login. You’re like sorry you’re not getting this.
I recommend Digital Ocean for your reseller hosting provider.
Best Cloud hosting
Cloud hosting has been going on for a while now and is not for the faint at heart. It’s literally like a Linux server where everything has to be done with the terminal command. Line typing in commands no control panel, no support, none of that is available to you.
Now in this instance, I’ll mention a few company names, there’s Digital ocean, Linode and Vultr.
You’re just buying this dedicated container of resources, no control panel or anything to manage it, if you have a problem, you are completely 100% on your own. If you’re not technical its best to avoid cloud hosting.
It’s not for most people, but if you would consider yourself a Linux system administrator or know enough to get by on the command line terminal SSH.
You could do it just fine if you knew enough to get your website going, but If you didn’t know enough to solve problems, if those problems came up so many times or at a crucial moment you’re going to have some serious issues.
Cloud hosting is going to get you the best performance at the lowest the price, and it is insane what you could do with cloud hosting but thank goodness there’s managed cloud hosting.
Essentially, what they’re doing is they’re taking those cloud hosting servers like Vultr and Digital ocean and providing its users with managed cloud hosting through those providers.
They will provide you with a control panel to make it easy to install WordPress and other software. Furthermore, some provide support so that you can ask for help when there’s a problem with your server or your website.
The only thing is, you’re paying almost double the cost of just getting that cloud server yourself. Cloud ways are the leading company that is pioneering this managed type of cloud hosting, I’ve used them before, and they are fantastic.
We recommend the following
- Amazon hosting
VPS is Virtual Private servers
VPS is Virtual Private Servers, like your own server only virtual. Very similar to what you would get with cloud hosting except think of cloud hosting with a cPanel control panel that you can have to make it easier to add email accounts and have multiple websites. However, you’re getting some dedicated resources, and you’re paying more for it. You can also use a VPS most of the time if it comes with something called WHM, it also allows you to create those separate cPanel accounts if you wanted to use it to resell hosting to your clients.
Most VPS services come with support ticketing systems which help when you run into trouble, and lastly, we have dedicated servers.
We recommend our own servers for VPS, or you could go with a company called Vultr for your VPS servers.
Best Dedicated servers
So you go to the hosting company, and they have full dedicated servers that you could lease.
The entire machine, 100% of its resources are for you now.
You can get these with the operating systems on it, or it could just be Linux OS which you can terminal and SSH into it to set up any way you want. Or they can have cPanel with WHM on it and then you can use that just like you would use the virtual private server except you have more resources, and those resources are dedicated to you.
So this is going to be your dedicated server. Most of us are going to end up starting using basic shared hosting and then move up to manage WordPress or Virtual hosting, and then there’s that decision of going with the ones with cPanel or the ones that have their custom control panel.
Still, you have that kind of a metered experience where you might have to pay more depending on how many people actually visit your website that particular month and then you might move up from there on to managed cloud hosting. If you need managed cloud hosting right now because you need tip-top peak performance or like having the dedicated resources, then you could go for one of these products from the get-go.
Ok, so now that we’ve looked into the products and solutions, web hosting companies provide let us look at the other factors when considering to a Webhost.
We recommend the IBM servers
Uptime monitoring
Make sure the company has a real-time uptime monitoring page. This page lets you know how their servers are keeping up and the speed they’re running at to the world networks.
Usually, Tier 1 hosting companies have these pages; however, keep in mind this won’t be all their servers, only a selected best few.
Furthermore, the results don’t load over time, you may find 99.99% uptime, but their servers are overloaded and can become sluggish, meaning you would have a slow website.
Server uptime over the past seven days would be something more meaningful, although I doubt any host will provide these.
We all want 100% uptime that’s the goal, and the hosts want to deliver that too.
However, in all honesty, all hosts have downtime just like a WordPress website needs updates and go into maintenance mode, same with servers and need to be rebooted, so a little bit of rest is very reasonable.
Top tier companies or Resellers with personal service
There is a wealth of information on the different types of hosting providers; most content you come across are Tier 1 larger companies, that work off low prices and numbers.
When you select a tier-one company, you’re just a number in their system.
For more personal service and the non-technical, this can be a nightmare since they will speak jargon which you may not fully comprehend via email ticketing systems. Whereas, there are thousands of resellers which usually provide a more personal service and a phone number to ring when you’re stuck.
Hosting resellers are not only more accessible, but they can also outline problems and solutions in plain English over the phone and sometimes via a mobile number or even in person if you find one locally.
This is a goldmine since they can also assist in growing your business.
Hosting Reviews
You would also find a lot of top tier companies that provide services with reviews for those companies or they may be listed on top five review sites.
However, I’ve got something for you.
A lot of these reviews are fake or are from people that create the reviews are affiliates.
What that means is, each time you click on the reviewed site links and buy the affiliate receives a commission.
There is hidden code within the affiliates id in the link, so they get commissions for each lead they send to the hosting companies.
Surprisingly, many buyers don’t know about this.
I don’t think you should put all the weight in your decision based upon these reviews.
Server Speeds
Speed is dependent on the plan that you choose and the companies throughout the internet. So the speed factor for any web host is a critical factor which should be considered.
Especially with how Google ranks sites that are faster.
Company Support
Are you going to get support, not just when your websites down?
Can they help with support like ‘I don’t know what happened to my WordPress password’ or ‘I can’t log in, can you maybe fix that for me’ or ‘I’m trying to update this plug-in, it’s not working can you fix this for me;
Is WordPress specific support’ included?
I think support is one of the essential experiences that you want to evaluate when choosing a web host.
Support experience that you’re going to get at the level of help you’re going to need, along with; do they have the WordPress expertise, would be dependent on your personal needs.
If you need a lot of support, you need to factor this into your decision.
Even if you need to pay extra for such support when you need it, it is very well worth it.
Server Security
Security is a significant concern for many businesses these days.
The number one include for any web host in terms of security is; do they have a free SSL certificate.
That’s a must nowadays!
However, security goes a lot further than that.
Web hosts should be taking proactive measures to prevent and block brute-force attacks on your website, scanning for vulnerabilities on your website things like that is what I’m talking about when I’m referring to security.
Also, side note with that, not all web hosts, and this is a big pain point for people is if you have an outdated plug-in on your website with a vulnerability. At some point, your site gets hacked into, and now you’ve got all this junk on your website. How much help can you get from your web host?
Some hosting firms can get this sorted for a fee, but others expect you or your developer to fix these issues up.
On top of that, they would give you a time limit to get it sorted.
Again even if you need to pay for website hack clean-ups, it’s worth going with a company that can quickly remove all malicious code and get you back online.
Add-ons and product features
Some web hosting organisations provide specific features for WordPress users, and so maybe a specialty feature would be a staging area.
What that means is, instead of just updating your website and then later finding out there’s a problem. With a one-button click, it’ll create this separate instance of your website where you can go and test different things; test different design or update plug-ins and see if it causes any problems.
This kind of staging areas perfect example of a specialty Feature.
Another specialty add-on is some form of caching, and that’s a speed optimisation; do they have some of these WordPress specific specialties?
Some of the hosts will update your website for you.
They’ll do all of these different things, so that’s one of the things you want to evaluate when choosing a web host for you also.
Shared, Cloud, Dedicated or VPS?
So, if your site is a resource-intensive site that requires the highest performance, large amounts of space, ram and resources, you would go with your server or go onto your cloud-based solution.
For a lesser intensive but need some control over your components hosting requirements, then a VPS would be more appropriate.
For most small business websites, shared managing to host would do, and you could always upgrade as your site gets busier, usually without any downtime.
Managed shared WordPress hosting has its merits; however, it won’t have email support and be the one without cPanel and with a custom control panel.
With uptime monitoring details, individual reviews, specialty features, I tried to make this blog as easy as possible for you to choose the best web hosting service for you.
I wanted you to understand the different types of hosting so you can choose the right one that meets your needs for today and tomorrow when your traffic and resource needs grow.
I want to know what you think in the comment section down below.
Any specific questions you have about web hosting, please ask.
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I appreciate you spending this time to read with me today; make sure you choose the right hosting that meets your requirements.
I can’t wait to see you in the next blog.
Thanks for reading.
